Universal Healthcare

Ok, so not trying to start a heated debate here, but as a public health personnel, I dont know why people are so much against universal healthcare? United States is ranked 30th when it comes to healthcare outcomes in the world. Underdeveloped countries with universal healthcare are ranked above us. Comparable countries like Canada and almost all European nations have it. What is the problem with us?

For the school of thought "why should I pay for someone else's healthcare". First, medicaid already comes from tax money so you are ALREADY paying for it. Question is, when do you want to start benefiting from it?

Universal healthcare has so many benefits for women. If we had universal healthcare, we could be enjoying longer maternity leaves for example. Like in Canada and France and Germany (United States maternity leave policy stinks. It is ranked 19th in 20 developed countries, with Australia being 20th due to the fact that it has a LONGER but unpaid maternity leave).

Im NOT saying Obamacare is the answer. But atleast it is one positive step. Pre-existing conditions coverage. Insurance not putting limits on insurance. Donut hole in Medicare covered. Arent these positive things?

Comments (81)

I am a big supporter of universal healthcare. To me, it just makes the most sense. I certainly consider healthcare to be a basic right based on the constitution.

I have been living in the Netherlands for almost ten years. We do not have universal healthcare in the way places like England and Canada do, but we have a system that works.

The way the health system here works is 1, everybody is required to have basic insurance, running about €100 per person per month. Children up to 18 years are free. Everybody also has a bit taken out of their paycheck for healthcare. Based on income, families can get some money back for their premium. Everybody is insured, and everybody gets the care they need. Health costs are actually cheaper because everybodys bills get paid. (my csection including all hospital costs and infant care cost under €5000, compared to the $20,000 upwards in America). Basic healthcare covers pretty much everything, including ivf.

Despite having many laws regarding healthcare, we do not have the disastrous consequences people mention when talking about European healthcare. There is no 8 month wait for cancer treatment or MRIs.

When my colleague felt a lump in his abdomen he was seen by his GP the same day, who sent him for a scan the following day, he heard the results by the afternoon, and (unfortunately) was meeting with his new oncologist the day after that. Treatments started the following week. Things don't move faster than that anywhere, even the US.

Last month dh fell from his rollerblades and we were worried he had broken his arm. I made him go to the er. 45 minutes later we were outside again, after being seen by a doctor, getting an X-ray, and receiving a tetanus shot. When everybody has adequate health insurance, nobody is forced to go to the er with trivial ailments.

No Dutch person I know would trade with the American system. They find it to be incomprehensible and ridiculously expensive.

I find obamacare to be a wonderful step in the right direction for American healthcare. Healthcare should be a right!!! Nobody should have to go bankrupt because they got sick with or without insurance. Unfortunately, that has become a sad reality for too many Americans.

I simply can't wrap my head around the thought processes of those who don't want to have to pay for others' healthcare and/or not pay into a system that they may never use. Chances are, you will use it at some point. Be it pregnancy, cancer, broken bones, etc. At some point, everybody needs some healthcare. Some people will need more than others, but only a very, very few will never have any health issues. I might say no one. By taking care of everybody's health needs, we create a healthier people, and thus a more efficient people. Most people will pay less in taxes than they currently do in health insurance, co-pays, deductibles, etc. Other people may pay more, especially if they are the ones who are not buying any insurance in the current system and instead rely on Medicare or just ignore health problems.

To Kelly: You are judging a whole group of people you know NOTHING about! My mom has worked her ass off at the same job she has had for the past 23 years to provide for my 2 sisters and I. She is not lazy, and we sure as hell don't have nice cars, or furniture or anything like that! The nicest thing they have in the house is a 52" flat screen that my sisters and me saved up to buy them so they would something nice to come home to.
My mom has not been able to afford health or dental care since they cut the benifits from her work when I was 10. She can't just leave and find a 'better' job somewhere else thanks to outsourcing in her field.
I would also like to mention that my grandpa worked his ass off trying to provide for my grandmother, he worked the night shift 6 days a week for 12+ years. He was only able to afford the most shitty insurance and ended up dying of cancer b/c he wouldn't go to the doctor knowing that they would be buried in debt they would never get to pay off. They also never had nice things.
It's great that you can afford your own insurance... But know that there will always be people who can't... Not everybody can be rich... Low paying service/working class jobs HAVE to exist. This world would fall apart without them! I am thankful to have somebody to take care of my garbage once a week, the people who build our houses, and cars, the people who serve my food to me when I am too damn lazy to cook, people who build our roads... I could go on forever! I feel we owe it to them to AT LEAST ensure they and their families have basic healthcare!
Thank you to those who work your asses off for next to nothing, doing things that nobody wants to do. I appreciate all that you do to make people's lives a little easier! May you get the healthcare you deserve.

I live in Canada and I find the debate so interesting...we are neighbours but our outlook on this can be so different. In the states it seems so many people are vehemently opposed to health care...and here in Canada we get angry when they start making cuts to ours!

It is true we have much higher taxes and all around our cost of living is more than most of America. But I've never minded, knowing that me and my family, friends, neighbours, etc. will never lose our homes or go bankrupt because of an unexpected illness or accident is completely and totally worth it to me.

I am appalled when I read how much women on this board have to pay out of pocket for ultrasounds, ER visits, etc...the important parts of pregnancy, the necessities. I haven't paid a dime for anything and neither my husband nor I have any kind of benefit plan through our work (self employed). This is all considered basic care...the only expense in pregnancy here is if you want to upgrade to a private room in the hospital you are delivering in.

I so much agree with us having a disease management system. It stinks. Healthcare is a RIGHT and should be MENDATORY. I dont know why the idea of mendatory makes people think of it negatively immediately. It is mendatory for their own good. Just like breathing and eating is mendatory, carrying a car insurance is mendatory, complying with law is mendatory, like we pay taxes and it supports education, it supports infrastructure. Whats wrong with supporting healthcare?

Wow Liz the Dutch system that you have described is v close to Obamacare. AND no one seems to mind it. Great! I dont think anyone in the world will trade their system for American healthcare system. Even most countries in UAE give free healthcare to their citizens. Only v poor countries with no means or resources dont have a system in place. Thats to say, ANY system in place. An over priced system designed to mint money out of sick people is sickening. Leaving it on States... good luck with that.

Shouldn't the right to food be required then too? Should we be able to walk into a grocery store and take whatever we want and walk out without paying a dime? Can you imagine a world where everyone was exactly the same and everyone got exactly the same things? I cant. It wouldn't work, that's not how humans are.

Yeah jobs like mailman and grabage man are lower jobs, but actually a lot of jobs like that are unionized and have great benefits.
I'll be a nurse, making about 75,000 a year in Oregon, awesome benefits being a nurse, and I'm working my ass off now for it so I can help people. Why should I be required to pay more for those who say, work at McDonald's and never took school seriously so they ended up there. That's not okay. That's just like everyone getting paid the same salary every single year, no matter your occupation, or lack there of. Like any system, universal healthcare is flawed.

That being said, why should we be able to go to the Dr without paying? That would be like getting a massage for free, because its to make us feel better..

Also, to those who are sp for this, what do you think about those who want plastic surgery or lypo. Do you think they should get that luxury for free, paid for by Americans? I don't think that's right. Woohoo free boobs!! No. I night as well get free designer jeans because they make me feel better about myself.

The idea of Universal Healthcare sounds great - but at what cost do we have to get there? Since 2010, my medical premiums went from $100 every other week for our whole family - to $500 every other week for our whole family because now the insurance companies need more money to cover the 26 year olds, pre-existing and lifetime cap people. (not that they don't 'deserve' coverage - just sayin how the law has affected us personally)

It's hit our paychecks hard and it'll affect small businesses (one of which we are part owners) too in very unfortunate ways. Not to mention the 3.8% tax on the sale of your home? At which point are we supposed to feel we've benefited from universal healthcare? When we give up, quit our jobs, and live off the government? I agree the old system is broken and needs to be reined in, but obamacare was definitely not the answer.

kellymariiie - I doubt there is any healthcare system in the world that covers lypo and boob jobs. In Canada those would be considered elective precedures and you would pay a premium for them. There are other healthcare procedures that aren't covered as well - for example circumcision, vasectomies and other things that aren't necessary for your overall health and well-being. And most developed countries including the US do operate on the assumption that food is a basic human right. That's why there are programs like wic, food stamps and other forms of relief and social assitance - to help people who can't afford basic necessitites.

^^^ thank you for clarifying that. Since those are medical procedures I would assume they would be included as well. So that also means no weight loss surgeries for free, another thing I'm relieved to hear.

By the food thing, I mean for EVERYONE, not just those who are poor, since everyone would have the "free" healthcare, not just poor people.